By Scott Wiltshire, vice president and general manager Australia and New Zealand, Oracle NetSuite
Australia’s productivity slowdown is no longer an abstract economic debate. It is visible inside companies every day. You see it in finance teams reconciling spreadsheets, supply chains reacting too slowly to demand shifts, and executives making decisions without a clear view of performance.
Despite heavy investment in technology, long-term productivity growth has slowed to 0.8 per cent, down from 1.8 per cent a decade ago, according to the latest GDP figures cited in The Australian’s CEO Survey 2026.
The problem is not a lack of technology – it is the fragmentation of the technology businesses rely on.
Many organisations run critical processes across multiple systems for finance, inventory, HR, analytics and customer management. The promise is agility. The reality is disconnected data, costly integrations, and manual workarounds that slow execution and increase risk.
That disconnect becomes even more problematic as companies turn to AI to solve productivity challenges. AI depends on unified data. Without it, automation can accelerate inconsistencies rather than eliminate them.
High-growth companies often feel these pressures first.
Australian clothing and lifestyle brand Ringers Western began as an idea around a campfire on a remote cattle station in the Kimberley. Today, the business has surpassed $50 million in revenue, operates 12 retail locations, and supplies more than 220 wholesale stockists across Australia and New Zealand.
As the company expanded, the systems that supported its early growth began to show strain.
“As we grew, we hit roadblocks,” Ringers Western CEO James Salerno said.
“Managing multiple locations, subsidiaries and currencies became challenging, and the system we were using just wasn’t flexible enough for our expanding needs.”
Ringers Western implemented NetSuite, an AI-powered business management suite, to consolidate financial, inventory and customer data into a single system.
“With NetSuite, we can make decisions more quickly and confidently because we have a clear picture of how everything is performing,” Mr Salerno said.
Melbourne-based road safety technology company Acusensus faced a similar inflection point as demand for its AI-enabled road-safety solutions accelerated. Revenue has grown quickly – from $6 million in FY21 to projected to exceed $83 million in FY26.
Rapid expansion exposed the limits of the company’s early finance tools.
“We moved very quickly from start-up to scale-up, and the basic-level accounting tools no longer served us well,” Acusensus CFO Anita Chow said.
“The biggest issue was the amount of time it took to close the books each month. It could take more than three weeks.”
Acusensus implemented NetSuite for its full suite of capabilities, including financials, reporting, inventory, work orders, and multi-subsidiary management, in a single integrated system.
“NetSuite has helped us close the books much faster. What used to take three weeks now takes six business days,” Ms Chow said.
“NetSuite has provided a strong data foundation for our operations and will enable us to continue to grow efficiently.”
The lesson for businesses is clear. The real opportunity lies in simplifying technology environments and unifying the data that runs the organisation.
Only then can AI deliver the productivity gains Australian businesses need – along with faster decisions, stronger financial control, and sustainable growth.
Find out more at NetSuite.com.au